Kristian Laake

Kristian Laake (9 April 1875-3 August 1950) was Commanding General of the Norwegian Army from 1931 to 1940, commanding Norway's army in the first few days of the Norwegian Campaign of World War II in 1940.

Biography
Kristian Laake was born in Ullensaker, Norway on 9 April 1875, and he entered the Norwegian Army in 1897; he also became a member of the Liberal Party of Norway. He rose in the ranks of the military during the Interwar period and became Commanding General in 1931, having been appointed by the Liberal cabinet with the goal of promoting military reforms. He shaped the party's reduced-size army plans, and his limited experience and his reforms angered the opposition in Norway. Laake undertook anti-revolutionary measures such as blocking industrial workers from serving in the Royal Guards, and he attended conservative paramilitary events. In 1938, he decided to scale down the military's preparations for putting down a revolution by the Norwegian Labor Party, and he was regarded as a moderate.

In 1940, Nazi Germany invaded Norway, and Laake was criticized by the government as as being too passive. He was asked to resign on 10 April, and he stepped down a day later. However, he had previously and constantly warned the government that war was imminent, only to be ignored. He died in 1950 at the age of 75.